# Gay Romance Novels



## Minnow (Dec 28, 2010)

Has anybody read any good ones they can recommend?


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## Hiikaru (Jan 18, 2011)

Hello!

The only author I'm aware of for this is David Levithan. His work has a lot of author-appeal element; it goes on a lot about Jews and drugs, and there's a lot more swearing than there really needs to be (a good number of his characters are Jewish boys who abuse illegal drugs and swear), but there's an underlying cuteness that might make it worth looking at!

_Boy Meets Boy_ is his most well-known book, but I haven't ever gotten a chance to look at it, so I can only recommend it based on its reputation. My favorite of his is _How They Met, and Other Stories_, which is a collection of short stories. "Starbucks Boy", in particular, is more focused on "cute" than a lot of his other work.

I totally understand if his writing isn't your thing - it isn't exactly mine, either - but hey, you don't have any other suggestions yet, and you might enjoy his books! Who knows?


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## Vladimir Putin's LJ (Jan 19, 2011)

E.M. Forster's Maurice is a good novel, and it has a surprisingly happy ending for something written in Edwardian times. 

A Perfect Waiter (Alain Claude Sulzer) is one of my favourites, but it has a massive twisty downer-ending and also there's two parts of the book that made me cry BUT IT'S GOOD.

The Married Man (Edmund White) starts off alright but it has a lot of HIV and AIDS and depression. It's also pretty heavy writing-style-wise.

Wilde & Co wrote Teleny but although it's pretty romantic, it's also really raunchy and it has a few nightmare fuel moments. Also the ending is sad. I like the comic better (Jon Macy), because it also cuts/downplays some of the more wtf moments.

My mother has a pretty decent-sized David Leavitt collection, but I've only read two of his books so-far: The Lost Language of Cranes and Family Dancing. Family Dancing isn't completely gay-themed (which adds more diversity tbh) but it's good, and I liked both books a lot.


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## Creepy Kecleon (Jan 19, 2011)

Hiikaru ♥;461709 said:
			
		

> "Starbucks Boy"



Definitely a jew


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## Lili (Jan 20, 2011)

_Interview With The Vampire_ has heavily implied homosexual romance, mostly between Lestat and Louis and Louis and Armand.  I LOVE it.


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## Dannichu (Jan 20, 2011)

Lesbian-themed books that're pretty good:

*Fingersmith*, *Tipping the Velvet*, *Affinity* and *The Night Watch* by Sarah Waters. Aside from being pretty much the definitve lesbian-novel-writer (certianly the one who brought lesbian books into the mainstrean), she went to my uni so I'm obliged to mention her (she also did a Q&A session there in my first year where I turned into a blushing, babbling _wreck_). They're all set in historical time periods, too (the first three are Victorian, The Night Watch set during WWII).

*Oranges are Not the Only Fruit* by Jeanette Winterson is probably the most famous lesbian-themed book. Not the happiest, but not soul-crushingly depressing, either.

Shamin Sarif's three novels, *The World Unseen*, *I Can't Think Straight* (both of which have been turned into (very good) films) and *Despite The Falling Snow* are all fantastic, with wonderful characters and really interesting settings (TWU in South Africa during apartheid, ICTS in Asian communities in modern London, and DTSTF in post-Stalin Moscow).

Val McDermid is a pretty famous crime writer (her Tony Hill books inspired the TV show Wire in the Blood), and her first series features a lesbian protagonist, Lindsay Gordon, who appears in *Union Jack* and any of McDermid's books with 'murder' in the title - *Booked for Murder*, *Common Murder*, *Report for Murder* and loads more I can't remember.

*Annie on my Mind* by Nancy Garden was the first lesbian-themed book aimed at young adults and was, naturally, banned for many years, but is still very sweet.

More young adult lesbian-themed novels include (these are recommended by Amazon; I've not read them):

Dare Truth or Promise by Paula Brook
Pages for You by Sylvia Brownrigg
Empress of the World by Sara Ryan
Kissing Kate by Lauren Myracle
Keeping You a Secret by Julie Peters


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## surskitty (Jan 20, 2011)

This is sort of off topic, but I think this link might be relevant for any of you considering seeing if you can get money for erotica.

I don't read romance novels :< Fandom supplies most of my entertainment in that area and most people are good about labelling anything squicky.


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